It has long been recognized that the accuracy of these reactions, let alone their speed, can not be achieved close to thermodynamic equilibrium [1]}. This means that information-replicating enzymes must necessarily catalyze non-equilibrium chemical reactions. A paradigmatic example is the kinetic proofreading scheme independently proposed by Hopfield [2]}, and Ninio [3]}. Kinetic proofreading can lead to an accuracy significantly higher than the equilibrium one, at the cost of dissipating chemical energy. This idea profoundly impacted our understanding of error correction in biology.
